ISLAMABAD, Nov 28 (APP): A private sector petroleum company
Trans-Asia is going to set up a refinery having capacity to develop 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) followed by the Byco that established the country’s largest production unit in Balochistan in June last year.

“The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract is
expected to be awarded by December 2016, subject to the Project
Financial Close. After award of the EPC contract the construction
will take approximately 30 months,” official sources in the Ministry of
Petroleum and Natural Resources told APP.

Trans-Asia Refinery Limited (TRL), they said, in collaboration with
Dubai was undertaking a project of relocating an oil refinery from Italy to Karachi with the capacity to refine 100,000 bpd (4.5 Million tons per annum) of crude oil.

“As per project sponsors, the estimated capital cost of the project is
US$ 750 million,” they said adding that setting up of back-to-back oil
refineries speak about the present government’s seriousness towards resolving the energy crisis and achieving self-sufficiency in this sector.

Local as well as foreign investors, they said, were reposing full
confidence in prudent and business-friendly economic policies introduced by the present government and making huge investments in the energy sector.

On June 12, 2015, the sources said, the Byco Petroleum Company had
set up the country’s largest oil refinery complex at Hub, Balochistan, with the capacity of refining 120,000 barrels crude oil per day. “The facility will increase energy security and reduce dependency on others.”

They said the country’s oil refining capacity had dropped from the 50
per cent mark, which was not considered a good sign for national economy.

Presently, the sources said, around six oil refineries were operating in the country and they had full capacity to refine the product as per needs of the country, they said adding that a lot of work was still had to be done in exploration sector to achieve autarky.

Answering a question, the sources said to scale up the production by
the local refineries, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) was implementing the Khalifa Coastal Refinery project at Khalifa Point, near Hub, Balochistan.

The refinery, having capacity of 250-300,000 bpd (11-14 million tons per annum), is being set up with an estimated cost of $ 4.5 billion. The
implementation timelines are 60 months.

While, Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) is working to enhance its
capacity from existing 43,000 bpd to 53,000 bpd.